No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2012 Dodge Charger
2 fires 2 of the 32 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Dodge Charger report no-start or intermittent start failure at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 28 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 132,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 98,135 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33,865 miles | 44,593 miles | 70,500 miles | 95,500 miles | 132,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $200–$1,800 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 2010 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 102; the 2012 has 32. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
2012 dodge charger with police package. Initially, vehicle would not start and had to be jumped started. Approximately one hour later, the vehicle would not accelerate past 2,000 rpms. The dealer replaced the accelerator pedal and accelerator pedal position sensor. Two days after getting the car back from the dealer, the same scenario occurred. While driving the car to the dealer, it would not go above 25 MPH but then would suddenly accelerate to 45 MPH without driver input. I was able to slow the vehicle with the brake but this could be a safety concern for someone not prepared for this. The car is now at the dealer waiting repair. *tr
My 2012 dodge charger was doing just fine, there was absolutely no indication that would have LED me to believe it was going to die on me soon. I bought it in may (used), and it is now august. It has just over 41k miles. I was driving about 60mph and this message came on "battery saving mode", I got to the store and pumped gas, turned it back on just fine and the message was still showing, then drove it less than a mile while hearing this slight high pitch noise that sounded like it was coming from under the hood. I reached my destination and when I turned off there was this burning smell and some clear smoke coming from under the hood. We opened it and saw and smelled more smoke along with a burned rubber smell coming from under the left side of the panel covering the engine. Now my car won't start at all and I keep hearing that it could be the alternator, and that it is under investigation for a possible recall. I don't know if I have to take it to the dealership and pay for it to get fixed if there's no official recall on it yet or what. I have also heard that it has actually caught fire for other people in the forums I've…
I was driving on the freeway going about 55 MPH and all of a sudden I noticed a message appear on my car stating "battery on safe mode". A few minutes after that message appeared I noticed the brake light popped up, along with the battery sign, and fuel light. As I exited the freeway I started smelling smoke so I pulled into a gas station. My car completely shut off. All power was gone. I tried jump starting the car a few times. The first time I never got a charge. The second time I let the car sit 5 mins to charge and was able to get power but the same messages appeared and the car would not start. The 3rd and finally time I tried, the power cut on but once I disconnected the cables the power shut down again. I ended up getting the car towed and later found out the battery was drained due to the alternator being bad. So the alternator went out. I'm glad I was able to pull into the gas station that day, instead of the car shutting down on the freeway. I could have been in a serious accident. *tr
Also reported on the 2012 Dodge Charger
Alternator or charging system failure
Other electrical problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Airbag inflator rupture
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 32 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2012 Dodge Charger?
Across 28 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2012 Dodge Charger?
32 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed